Amelia at 13 Months

Last time I blogged about Amelia, she was starting her heat cycle. What a insane three weeks that had been! She left messes everywhere, I think my bed comforter is ruined, and she had been forced to stay inside the whole time! Luckily, the bleeding stopped a couple days ago, and she should be getting her body back to normal again soon. We have only started to take her back out to the apartment complex dog park, she has way too much energy! We have been careful and making sure no one else comes into the park, if they do, we are more than willing to leave before they come in. Luckily, we have not came across anyone else in the park, it is only just us.

Anyway, we took her up there on Sunday, just so I could get recent photos of her. I know I have said this before, I love taking photos of her. I get to practice with my camera, which is a constant learning process. Working with a digital SLR is a huge learning curve, and even now, I am still learning more things about it. More recently - I have been figuring out video settings!

At the park is when I really notice how beautiful she is. In the house, she's barking, growling at people through the sliding glass door, staring at my food when I try to eat, or getting stepped on in the kitchen (seriously, who lays down in the middle of the floor while I am trying to fix dinner?). But, at the park is where she will just run circles with a frisbee in her mouth, and I really see her for what she is. Her long tail, swaying behind her, how graceful she just prances around the park, or how her ears perk forward while she listens for a bird. She is gorgeous in these moments.

I have always adored golden retrievers for my entire life. I even remember admiring them as a young child. They are the dogs on the cover of books, in advertisements, in movies... the perfect family dog. When I blogged about picking out Amelia, as an 8 day old puppy, I really could not believe that it was me who was getting a golden retriever. Perfect families, with perfect lives, perfect homes and perfect children were people who owned goldens. Not people like me, who lives in apartments, has too many flaws to list, and has no children for the family orientated dog to play with. But, it happened, and she has been with us for a while now!

She is the love of my life, the reason I get out of bed in the morning, and the subject of my photography. She is my world, and has been ever since I read that Craigslist advertisement for golden retriever puppies. That was the start of my love affair with Amelia - it started even before I met her, before she could even see me.

That being said, we do still have our issues with her. She is absolutely terrible on walks. We have tried training with treats on a leash, pretending to be a tree until she stops pulling, a Gentle Leader headcollar, and now we have moved on to a Easy Walk Harness. Recently, her newest thing is pulling us, and when we do not go faster, she still whine and groan, then do a complete vertical jump in the air. It is terrible. She jumps on people, which I absolutely hate. However, the husband likes it, he encourages it, so I can not fault her for that. She does not know better.

Bonus video! Just a video I filmed at the park, of her playing "keep away" with my husband.